ANST - Coronation

[Mitchell, Paul T]

Daniel wrote:

> Sorry if I'm digressing off into topics not of interest to most on the
> list ...

> Kein Rex wrote:
>> A warning to all heralds.
>> We may open a court and give an award at any time, so stay on your   
toes.
>
>Three ideas for all crowns ... though I may be teaching ovasuction to
>superannuated female ancestors (which is to say, trying to teach
>Granny how to suck eggs):

In the case of Their current Majesties, you may be.  I've worked with   
their
courts a time or two, and I've always found them to be excellent partners
in the goal of putting on a good show.  But Daniel's ideas are all good
points.

>1) keep a stock of blank award report forms on hand to hand to the
>herald.  (Get 'em from Star, I presume.)

This is a good idea.  Most royalty understand well that there's little   
point
in giving an award that doesn't get reported and entered into the   
records.
The medievals were quite thorough about this sort of thing, and for good
reason.

>2) for the Lord's sake, give your court herald warning and wait until
>he's ready!  The only time I've ever been tempted to regicide was
>where I was the baronial backup herald at Steppes Warlord's big court,
>and for some unknown reason that particular Crown decided to start
>without their herald and their award scrolls.  We were 7 minutes from
>the end of baronial court before the herald (a quite competant fellow,
>I should note) was located -- he and a scribe were off finishing the
>scrolls.  7 minutes from telling two people "sorry, we're not
>elevating you to peerages tonight like we said".  7 minutes from
>telling everyone "we'll have to have a big court on Sunday instead".
>7 mintues from making everyone at that end of the court look foolish.

On the other hand, some Crowns have been known to take the attitude
that heralds aren't _really_ necessary, and they can "wing it" without   
one.
I'm sure in this case that they either didn't realize what they lacked,   
or
thought they could get by without, or perhaps had decided not to
keep the populace waiting.  Court delayed is revel delayed, and often
feast delayed, too.

>3) agree with your herald that you back each other up.  The two
>classiest stories I've hear of are:
>- a herald misspoke and the king apologized for misspeaking.  "The
>herald is the voice of the Crown", so it was the king's mistake.
>- the royalty had forgotten to sign the scrolls beforehand, and the
>Queen noticed on the third award.  The herald took the blame loudly
>("there will be a royal autograph party after court to sign these
>scrolls ... using herald's blood"), covering the royal error.

Again, Kein and Alisha are good with this sort of thing.  A lot of good   
magic
can be made in a good court, but that requires the cooperation of a good
herald with good ruling nobles.  Sir Pendaran is one of the best with   
this sort
of thing, but he was in Europe last weekend, so TRM made do with me.   
 There
are others better than me, but I do my best.  Kein and Alisha, I have   
observed,
work hard to put on a good show with their courts.  They are not perfect   
rulers,
and I've had my share of frustrations with them, but in this very   
important
public aspect of kingship, that of putting on a Royal Court, they are   
among
the best, largely because of the effort they put forth.

>But I digress.
>
>--
>Daniel de Lincoln
>Tim McDaniel.   Reply to tmcd at crl.com
>tmcd at austin.tx.us is not a valid address.  
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